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GM Warns Auto Tariffs Would Kill Jobs, Lead To "Smaller Company"

Is GM looking to become the next Harley-Davidson? Because with its latest statement, the company appears to be trying to provoke an angry Trump tweet.

Just a week after revealing that it would build the new Chevy Blazer in Mexico, the company said Friday that it could reduce US jobs if the US imposes tariffs on auto imports.

Trump famously threatened to impose a 20% tariff on cars and other automobiles imported from the EU after the trade bloc unveiled retaliatory tariffs on $3.2 billion of US goods.

Based on the Tariffs and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S. & its great companies and workers by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!

The Auto Alliance industry group seized on the figure, arguing that auto tariffs could increase the average car price by nearly $6,000, costing the American people an additional $45 billion in aggregate.

According to Reuters, the company said auto tariffs being considered by the Trump administration could lead to "a smaller GM" and also risk isolating US companies from the global market and - more importantly - killing US jobs. Back in late May, the Commerce Department launched an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to determine whether imported cars and auto parts "threaten to impair national security" (the rationale the administration has used to justify all its trade "investigations"). GM's comments were issued in response to the investigation.